Original subtitles

Sovexport Film presents

Filmstudio "Georgia Film", USSR.

Script and direction: Irakli Kvirikadze

Camera: Guram Tugushi

Production design: Aleksandr Dzhanshiyev

Musical score: Teimuraz Bakuradze

Sound: Madonna Tevzadze

In Batumi it rained constantly.

One night, at our shooting location,

this man with an umbrella turned up.

He called himself Anton

and told us he was the grandson of Durmischan Dumbadze,

the man we made the film about.

Show me my grandfather, he asked.

Here he is.

The legendary swimmer Durmischan Dumbadze.

THE SWIMMER

We're shooting the scene where Durmischan leaves Batumi

as he could not withstand the ridicule of the townspeople

Our hero is a real man,

who lived in the beginning of the century

but who has been forgotten since.

It poured from morning until evening.

We were waiting for the rain to stop for a few minutes.

22 short stories from the lives of 3 swimmers.

Anton carried with him the photo album of his family

and many stories to be told.

He told us the chronicles of his family, the Dumbadzes.

Durmischan did not live far from Batumi.

He was poor

and made a living from his three buffaloes.

During the rain period the river was flooded

and the buffaloes were driven far out to the open sea.

Durmischan found them and brought them back to the shore.

He could dwell in the water for several days in a row.

The times were hard

so Dumischan walked to Batumi in search of work.

Batumi 1913

He started to work as a diver in the harbour of Batumi.

He cleansed the hulls which were overgrown with shells.

He was a man who liked to enjoy himself.

He liked to put his endurance on display

in all strange ways.

One time he dived with the turtles in an aquarium

at the Zoological Garden of Batumi.

He wanted to prove that he could be under water for six minutes.

"It is impossible", he was told

by representatives from the Caucassus and Mercury Sport Club.

The president of the Sport Club, Givi Gogoberidze

turned on his timer.

Durmischan lay on the bottom letting out bubbles.

Strange!

The second hand is already on the sixth turn.

Six minutes.

An unofficial record in being underwater.

Gogoberidze couldn't believe his eyes.

To Batumi came the famous English swimmer Tomas Winston.

Who had swum across the English canal.

Here he is. Tomas Winston.

The swimming over the English canal was a world sensation at the time.

Tomas Winston and his lovely wife Franceska Koti,

silent film actress

All their public appearances were documented,

by a cameraman who accompanied them on their tour.

In the background stands Durmischan,

who at the time had been promoted

to chief of the diving squad in the Batumi harbour.

2 July 1913.

In the newspaper The Echo of Batumi one could read

that during the banquet in honour of Tomas Winston,

Durmischan, who already had started to make a reputation, stood up and said

"I can swim across two English canals."

The words were translated to the Englishman,

who laughed.

"He doesn't know what marathon swimming is about."

"He will freeze", Tomas Winston continued.

"He will freeze and sink to the bottom of the sea".

The champ was a happy man and his cheerfulness was infectious.

Dumischan understood that he was made fun of.

"I will swim right now!"

"I'll jump from the quay and I'll get up in the city of Poti!"

In the morning paper Tomas Winston could read a short news item,

reminding of yesterday's little incident on the quay.

But more important was the publicity made for Winstons company.

The champion was also a clever businessman.

Tomas Winston visiting the Batumi oil producer Rotschild.

Franceska Koti charms everyone with her movie star smile.

An honouring visit to Teo Kekelidze,

manager of the Batumi department of the central bank.

Trade agreements are being signed.

Durmischan was forgotten.

At one point the Englishman asked about the man on the quay.

Nobody knew about him.

POTI. ENTRANCE TO THE CITY. CITY TOLL.

The morning of the third day.

Dressed in the undershirt of one of the soldiers,

he returned home.

The way he was dressed he did not dare to enter the city.

A monk carried honey from the monastery to be sold in Batumi.

The monk gave him honey and wine and dressed him in his robe.

"Tell him that I have swum to Poti!"

"It is not true! You are lying!"

"We have investigated the matter."

"People saw how you got up on the shore of Chakva."

"And Chakva is not the English canal".

I couldn't prove anything.

The whole city was laughing at me.

And I left Batumi.

He returned the keys to the landlady

and went to the country.

Durmischan often went down to the sea.

At one time, not far from the shore,

he discovered a sunken ship full of amphoras.

"It is wine!"

It reminds of Isabella but it is sweeter.

Durmischan brought up 1 000 year old wines from his wine cellar.

Maybe the wine had belonged to the Argonauts,

who had came sailing to Kolchida, searching for the golden fleece.

At odds with the world Durmischan drank in solitude.

He did not know that the world was changing rapidly at the time.

One day he was called to the sport commissariat.

"We are arranging a marathon swimming contest."

"Do you want to swim?"

"Of course!"

"You will be the first red champion."

"Swim!"

He prepared for the competition.

But a terrible fatigue paralyzed his muscles.

Durmischan understood he wouldn't be able to swim the 60 kilometres.

The Greek Star picked him up half dead out on the open sea.

Durmischan got drunk.

Wandering the hills he entered a tunnel.

He was run over by the train...

The second episode takes place in the 1940's

and we dedicate it to Domentii, the son of Durmischan.

Domentii liked challenges where he could show off his strength.

One time he locked himself up inside the Batumi slaughterhouse's coldroom.

And in order to not freeze to death in the -20�C cold,

he carried pigs all the night.

He won this bet.

Domentii worked as an instructor

for the organization for mass swimming.

The gay 40's.

The war had just ended.

Everywhere brass bands were playing.

Mass swimming was very popular.

The organizer of these events was my father,

Domenii Dumbadze.

The director of the sport committee makes a speech.

"Mass swimming has become a popular sport."

"In swimming certain abilities are trained,"

"that are required in labour and in defending our country."

"And now we welcome our guest,"

"Odisei Meschi."

"Marathon swimming champion of 1941."

"His record has not been beaten by anyone."

"Our guest hands over the trophy to the contesters."

And that was how Odisei Meschi entered the lives of our family.

Our father invited Odisei to a banquet.

The invitation was accepted.

When I remember this evening

I see a mirror,

in which the happy faces around the table are reflected.

Odisei stealthily watches Lala, my fathers sister.

Beso Antadze, the artist, is secretly in love with Lala.

Next morning my father told Odisei about his dream,

to swim from Batumi to Poti.

The blood of my ancestors was flowing in my fathers veins.

The summer before the war he prepared for the start.

But a week before the start the war broke out.

"I am ready to swim now as well, but Isidor says,"

'You came back from the front with a contusion, it is too dangerous!'

"But I am strong as a bull!"

"I can be underwater for six minutes!"

"it is impossible."

"You wanna bet?"

"If I'll do it, will you help me to organize the swimming?"

"Start the timer!"

Odisei watched the second hand,

and the beautiful profile of Lala.

I visited the old building of the sport committee.

It is all desolate.

Only the frescoes reminds of the turbulent years.

Odisei managed to get permission for a trial race.

"If Domentii makes 15 km with a good result,"

"then he'll have the permission to swim the long distance swim."

The trial course Batumi- Zeliolni Mis and back.

My father made it in excellent time,

Six hours and 40 minutes.

He got his permission to swim Batumi-Poti.

From that day on Domentii did not get up from the water.

Odisei Meschi took interest in Domentiis swimming,

as well as in Lala.

"And dad just swum?"

"Yes."

"And he had no clue?"

"No."

Domentii was proud of being friends with the great swimmer.

Odisei prepared him for the long swim.

"Is this the aquarium?"

So many years have passed,

and yet is is as if nothing has changed here on the veranda.

A shell thrown in the water.

It is strange,

that such a silly thing would become so ominous in my father's life.

I remember that day in smallest detail.

On the veranda they were playing lotto.

Father was resting.

In two days he was going to swim.

Odisei walked up to the aquarium,

took a porcelain elephant,

and dropped it in the water.

He created the rules of the game for us children.

Mimicking him we started to throw different figurines into the water.

At the time I didn't understand what was happening,

to the director of the sport committee

or why dad went so pale.

MARATHON SWIMMING BATUMI-POTI

Domentii did not turn up.

He had disappeared.

"We have to cancel the race."

"It is irresponsible on his behalf!"

"You should know where he is!"

"Why should I know?"

In our family album,

there were plenty photos of that kind.

Odisei did not leave Batumi alone.

He brought with him Lala on a wedding trip.

Nobody knew what this man had done,

in order to remain

the unbeaten champion.

Here swum my grandfather Durmischan.

"Why don't you swim?"

What could I answer her?

"Now let's sing the last verse"

This is my work.

Cultural worker at the Tbilisi Excursion Bureau.

I want to touch the sea, enter it,

remember that love my ancestors felt for long distance swimming.

I owe my grandfather and my father.

I have to challenge myself.

"Swimming contest in remembrance"

"of the legendary Georgian swimmers"

"Durmischan and Domentii Dumbadze."

"Swimming contest in remembrance of all swimmers."

THE SWIMMER

The End